mangafandomcom-20200224-history
East Asian age reckoning
East Asian age reckoning is a concept and practice that originated in China and is used in East Asian cultures. Chinese culture, Japanese culture, Korean culture, Vietnamese culture, and others share this traditional way of counting a person's age. Newborns start at one year old, and each passing of a Lunar New Year, rather than the birthday, adds one year to the person's age. In other words, the first year of life is counted as one instead of zero, so that a person is two years old in their second year, three years old in their third, and so on. Since age is incremented on the new year rather than on a birthday, people may be 1 or 2 years older in Asian reckoning than in the Western system. Today this system is commonly used in everyday life by Chinese in certain regions. The system is also widely used by Koreans, with the exception of the legal system and newspapers. In Eastern Outer Mongolia, age is traditionally determined based on the number of full moons since conception for girls, and the number of new moons since birth for boys. In Japan it is used for traditional fortune-telling or religion, and it is disappearing in daily life between people in the city. Chinese In either the traditional or modern age system, the word sui ( ), meaning "years of age", is used for age counting. When a person's age is given in a publication, it is often specified whether that is his or her traditional age ( ) or modern age ( ) or shisui ( ). Japanese Japanese uses the word sai ( or ) as a counter word for both the traditional and modern age system. The traditional system of age reckoning, or kazoedoshi ( ), was rendered obsolete by law in 1902 when Japan officially adopted the Western system,レファレンス事例詳細: 相-090002, Collaborative Reference Database. (Accessed 2009-11-11.) "なお、年齢が数えか満年齢かについては、現行法規である「年齢計算ニ関スル法律」が明治35年12月2日法律第50号として存在するが、その前に「明治六年第三十六号布告」で満年齢について規定された。 (translation: Whether one counts age the modern age system (満年齢) is described by the "Legal age calculation" law initiated Meiji 35 (1902), December 2, Act no. 50 exists prior to the "13 Years of Meiji 6 Proclamation No. 6" prescribed for the modern age system (満年齢).)" known in Japanese as man nenrei ( ). However, the traditional system was still commonly used, so in 1950 another law was established to encourage people to use the Western system.Hirofumi Hirano, July Heisei 40, 年齢の計算に関する質問主意書 (Memorandum on questions about the calculation of age), Japan House of Representatives. (Retrieved 2009-11-11) "わが国では、「年齢のとなえ方に関する法律」に基づき、昭和二十五年以降数え年による年齢計算を止め、満年齢によって年齢を計算している。 (translation: In Japan, the age laws which were originally based on the calculation by East Asian age reckoning (数え年) were replaced Twenty-five years after the Showa (1950) with the modern age system (満年齢) method of age calculation.)" Today the traditional system is mainly used by the elderly. Elsewhere its use is limited to traditional ceremonies, divinations, and obituaries. Korean Koreans generally refer to their age in units called sal (살), using Korean numerals in ordinal form. Thus, a person is one sal during the first calendar year of life, and ten sal during the tenth calendar year.Song, Jae Jung. (2005), p. 81-82, (quote) "Koreans prefer native Korean to Sino-Korean numerals when telling their own or other people's age,...Note that the native age classifier sal must be used with native Korean numerals and the Sino-Korean age classifier sey with Sino-Korean numerals,.." The 100th-day anniversary of a baby is called baegil (백일), which literally means "a hundred days" in Korean, and is given a special celebration, marking the survival of what was once a period of high infant mortality. The first anniversary of birth named dol (돌) is likewise celebrated, and given even greater significance. Koreans celebrate their birthdays,DuBois (2004), pp. 72-73 even though every Korean gains one year on New Year's Day. Because the first year comes at birth and the second on the first day of the lunar New Year, a child born, for example, on December 29 (of the lunar calendar) will reach two years of age on Seollal (Korean New Year) , when they are only days old in western reckoning. In modern Korea the traditional system is most often used, mistakenly even when talking to non-Koreans. The international age system is referred to as "man-nai" (만나이) in which "man" (만) means "full" or "actual", and "nai" meaning "age".Hilts and Kim, (2002), p.228 (quote) "Koreans have a peculiar way of calculating age. When you're born, you're already one year old, and then you get another year older when New Year's Day rolls around. The result is that your hangungnai (한국나이), 'Korean age', is usually one to tow years older than your man-nai (만 나이), 'actual age'. Under-age kids sometimes try to take some advantage of this, but eligibility for drinking, obtaining license etc is determined by your actual age." For example, man yeol sal means "full ten years", or "ten years old" in English. The Korean word dol means "years elapsed", identical to the English "years old", but is only used to refer to the first few birthdays. Cheotdol or simply dol refers to the first Western-equivalent birthday, dudol refers to the second, and so on. The Korean Birthday Celebrations by the lunar calendar is called eumnyeok saeng-il (음력 생일, 陰曆生日) and yangnyeok saeng-il (양력 생일, 陽曆生日) is the birthday by Gregorian calendar. For official government uses, documents, and legal procedures, the Western age system is used. Regulations regarding age limits on alcohol and tobacco use, as well as the age of consent, are all based on the Western system (man-nai). See also * Chinese calendar * Japanese calendar * Korean calendar * Minguo calendar—The Republic of China's calendar Footnotes References * * * External links *Japanese kazoedoshi counting Category:Chinese culture Category:Japanese culture Category:Korean culture Category:Vietnamese culture ko:동아시아의 나이 계산법 ja:数え年 zh:虚岁